5 – Star Service Guarantee

There is a certain bank, I won’t name names, yes I will, it’s US Bank, that claims to offer a “5-Star Service Guarantee”. What does this mean? Anyone? No other banks refer to “star” service scales. Is this 5 stars on a scale of 10? 100? It is important we know what kind of scale this is because without this knowledge, we can’t be sure of what they’re guaranteeing. For example, if it is on a scale of 10, then we can expect at least average service. But if it is on a scale of 100, their service standards would be very low – it’s possible the teller might spit on us. Of course, most likely, the scale, the arbitrary scale THEY made up, only goes up to 5. Ok. But then who decides that they have earned a 5-Star rating? Do they decide this? Nowhere does it attribute the 5-star service quality determination to some independent, bank-rating 3rd party. They’ve decided this!!! Ugh. Ok, I’ll stop now.

8 Responses to “5 – Star Service Guarantee”

The five star service is the last vestiges of the former FirStar Bank that was gobbled up by US Bank a decade ago or so. It was technically a merger but the made-up five stars are all that are left. If I remember correctly (used to bank with FirStar) the stars are not a scale but rather represent 5 services the bank offers as part of its client services.

There is an independent bank rating service by Bauer Financial that give bank ratings with 5 stars being the best. It is possible that at one time US Bank Corp may have been a 5 star but not at this time. Bauer Financial recommends any banks getting a 4 or 5 star rating and US Bank currently receives 3.5 stars.